Broken Wings, Shattered Heart
by Theluckyturtle
Summary: Sam and Dean are spending the night at a cheap motel, like normal. It is not so normal when their favorite angel appears in a broken and bloody mess on the doorstep. Can they save him? Will they be able to salvage his mangled wings? Twoshot. Hints of destiel.
1. Chapter 1

It was just past midnight in Montgomery, Alabama. The wind could be heard howling outside of the windows of their cheap motel. Both of the room's occupants were asleep, the sound of the wind only playing itself into their dreams.

It had been a normal day, or as normal as their days could get. The two brothers had just finished taking out the last of a clan of vampires in the area. With that done, they were set to leave for the next morning.

The rain continued to pelt the windows, but its noise went unheard, fading into the background. A quiet knock sounded on the door, but it was overshadowed by a sudden clash of thunder.

Again, the knock came, but no one in the room stirred. The third time, it wasn't a knock. It was more of a single, sharp hit. It rattled the door and startled both occupants from their sleep.

Dean's hand immediately reached for the gun under his pillow, while Sam's shot out and groped the nightstand until it clasped the cool, familiar metal of his handgun.

Dean had already slid out of bed and was halfway through the door. Motioning to Sam, he told him to go to the other side of the door. As they both crept to the door, quiet with a practiced ease, they could identify the sound of heavy breathing from the other side of the door. Shooting a confused but cautious look at his younger brother, Dean slowly stretched out his hand and grasped the knob. In a flash, he had the door flung open and spun himself around to face the cool night coming in from the entryway.

At first, he didn't see anything, but he could smell the rusty tinge of blood in the air. Behind him, Sam gasped. Dean shot him a glance, but Sam was frozen in place. Dean doubted he would have noticed had he slapped him in the face. And boy, was he tempted to try.

Turning back toward the door, Dean's eyes dropped to mirror the path of Sam's. Like Sam, he couldn't stop the sudden rush of air forcing its way into his lungs.

Slumped heavily against the doorpost was his angel, Castiel. And he looked, frankly, like shit. Or, to be more precise, like he had been hit by a train, then thrown over the side of a cliff, and lastly had a run in with a hundred demons.

Dean was in the middle of making his mental scenario of what could have happened to put Cas in such a dire state when Sam interrupted his train of thought.

"Dean," he said. His voice sounded like nothing more than a forced whisper. Dean didn't respond. "Dean," he said again.

"What Sammy," Dean snapped back. He wasn't in the mood to play twenty questions. Not when his angel was slumped against the doorjamb, looking as if the slightest wind would send him spiraling to the wet ground.

"Dean, his wings," the quiet statement trailed from his mouth. Dean would have done his imitation of Spock's eyebrows if the situation weren't so grave.

"The hell are you-" the rest of his statement was trapped in his mouth. When he turned back to get a look at Cas, he saw them.

Dean wouldn't admit it, but he had imagined what seeing Cas's wings for the first time would be like. He knew that, at this point, they wouldn't be white and bathed in heavenly glory. Not after Cas betrayed heaven and his Father left.

But, when he thought of them, he never thought of what he saw before him. The wings that should have been tall, strong, even majestic, were anything but. The feathers were ruffled, or missing altogether in places. Dean could tell that his wings were black, but the deep spots of blood made the color look more like faded rust. The limp appendages were sprawled out behind has, and making as little movement as their master.

Dean had fallen into a trance of shock. He couldn't imagine what could cause this much damage to a once powerful, celestial being. Or why he could see the wings in the first place.

Sam, who was still standing next to his shell-shocked brother, called him to get his attention.

"Dean," he said, turning toward the shorter man. Dean gave no indication that he heard him. He tried again and again, but his brother was as reactive as a rock.

Finally, Sam gave up trying to call his brother. Instead, he threw his hand up and, for all intents and purposes, bitch slapped his frozen brother.

Dean was quickly snapped out of his revere. He was about to ask Sam what the hell that was for, but Sam started talking before he could get a word out.

"We need to move him, Dean. We can't leave him there! And he looks pretty bad. Like really bad," Sam rambled. It was obvious that he was at as much of a loss as Dean was when it came to dealing with wounded angels.

"What are we supposed to do about his… uh… wings?" Dean asked. With those things in the way, how were they supposed to pick him up? Much less fit him through the door.

"We'll just have to make it work, Dean," Sam said in a 'what makes you think I know' sort of voice.

Dean decided that it was best to simply shut up and work on the task at hand. He, following Sam, crept toward the angel.

Sam rested his hand on Cas's forehead, checking for a fever. Almost immediately, he ripped his hand back, as if burned. He didn't say anything, but he nodded to Dean to indicate that the angel did, in fact, have a fever. Or, more accurately, had become an embodiment of the sun.

Ignoring the heat that he could feel radiating off of the angel, Dean came closer and slid his hands behind Cas's shoulders, but above his mangled wings. With Sam at Cas's feet, the two of them were able to shift the angel to that he was laying down on his side.

As his wings were jostled, a deep, almost feral moan tore its way from Castiel's throat. In reaction to the pain, he tried to squirm out of the grasp of the two hunters, but they both held firm. Dean shifted again, so that he was squatted down next to the agitated angel's face. As steadily as he could, Dean ran his hand through Castiel's hair and whispered low reassurances into his ear.

"Shhh, bud. It's just us, Cas. Just relax," Dean soothed. He looked over at his brother but Sam simply shrugged. He was a clueless as Dean when it came to dealing with hurt angels.

Once Castiel was somewhat calmed down, the two brothers resumed their positions at either end of his person. They made it only a few feet before Cas began to thrash again. His wings were so large that they were dragging on the ground behind them, causing branches of pain the travel through his body at every move.

Sam and Dean looked at each other for a moment.

"I'll call Bobby. Maybe he's got some idea…" Sam trailed off. "You should try to get him to fold in his wings.

Dean shot him a look that clearly said, _What the hell makes you think that is a good idea?_

"I'm sure they fold up somehow right? I mean if anything they have to bend when he flies so it makes sense that they fold up smaller too, right?" Sam told Dean, while mentally trying to convince himself that what he said actually made sense.

A loud crash of thunder echoed again and the pair jumped. They heard a low moan from near the door, signaling that the thunder caught Cas off guard too.

Before Dean could come up with a reason why they shouldn't do this, Sam had his phone out and was dialing Bobby's number.

Dean headed back towards the door. He followed the watery trail he left when he first came back into the house. The chill of his own clothes was making him miserable, so he couldn't imagine how Cas felt.

He stepped out into the rain, kneeling down next to Cas. Just like before, Dean leaned down to whisper in Cas's ear,

"Hey buddy, you with me?"

The only response he got was silence. He asked twice more before he finally got a response. It was faint, but Dean could hear the angel whispering his name over and over like a mantra.

"Cas, I need you to do something for me, okay? I need you to fold up your wings. We need to get you inside."

"…hurts," mumbled the angel. Dean could have sworn he felt a little crack make its way across his heart. He felt like a villain. It was obvious that Castiel was in a lot of pain, but here he was asking him to do shit.

"There's no other way. I'm… I'm sorry Cas," he croaked. He could feel traitorous tears gathering at the corners of his eyes, but he refused to let them fall. He had to be strong, if not for himself, for Cas. The last thing he needed was the guy who was supposed to be helping him bawling like a six year old who had his toy taken away.

Cas didn't move to complete Dean's request. He simply kept breathing his shallow breaths, whimpering at various intervals.

It went on and on. The rain kept pouring down around them and neither moved. Dean's mind was occupied with thoughts on what he could do to save Cas, and what would happen if he couldn't.

_This is ridiculous. Suck it up, Dean,_ he mentally chided himself. With steeled breath, he shuffled a few feet back toward the angel, making sure to avoid the extra appendages haphazardly laying about.

"Cas, I'm sorry. I really am." And for a while, he just held him with his head in his lap. Seconds turned to minutes. He was still holding him when Sam came back out from talking with Bobby. Choosing to ignore the precarious position of his friend and brother, he began catching Dean up on what Bobby said.

"So, Bobby knows about as much as we do. He said the best thing we could do was fix his wings up like if he was a bird. The rest is just up to him. Apparently, wings are pretty important to angels, not just an extra limb, so he said we'd want to be careful. So pretty much everything we already know."

If it were any other situation, Dean would have laughed at Sam's frustrated snide comment. But with his arms full of pained angel, it was kind of hard to laugh. The pause went on for a while. Neither knew what to say. Another loud crack brought them out of their stupor.

"Let's just get him inside, Dean," sighed Sam.

"How?" Dean's volume rose. "Anytime he so much as twitches he's moaning, and you want us to just start moving him willy-nilly?"

"Look, I know it's not a good option, but it's not like we have any others! Let's just fold his wings up and get him inside. We'll go from there."

The entire plan sounded absolutely cruel to both of them, but there was not much of a choice otherwise. It was either carry him inside, causing a lot of pain in the process, or leave him to die in the rain. And the latter was never really an option.

Sam moved closer, ready to get the show over with as soon as possible.

"You just hold on to him. I'll do the rest." Sam could see how much this pained his brother. Not that either would ever admit it, but they, especially Dean, really cared for the angel. Sam could have sworn he saw a tear streak down his older brother's face, but didn't look too closely. He could at least give Dean the small comfort of his silence.

Dean moved so the he was sitting next to Cas, and pulled him up from his spot on the ground. The angel's face immediately found its way into the crook of Dean's neck, his hand clinging to the front of his shirt like it was his last lifeline.

Several feet away, Sam took ahold of one of the ebony wings. Even that small movement sent a groan sprawling from the shaking angel's lips. Sam paid no attention to it, though, and set about completing his task. Steadily, he pushed the wing, as gently as he could, toward the angel's back. He could hear the bones grinding and feel the muscles moving underneath his hands.

The injured wings continued to protest, but eventually one wing was tucked up closely to his back. To both of their surprise, the wing stayed in place. The same process was repeated with the other wing. It made the same grinding noise, elicited the same moans, but folded easier than the first.

By the time he was done, his hands were a dark shade of red, an occasional black feather stuck in the drying blood.

The entire time, Dean had sat and held Cas, rubbing his shoulder blades around his wings and whispering softly into his ear. The angel slowly calmed under his ministrations, and by the time Sam was done, he had successfully passed out.

It took Dean a few moments to free his shirt from the angel's clutches. When he was done, he went around behind his shoulders, ready to lift him again.

It took the combined efforts of the two humans to get the angel inside and onto the nearest bed. While Sam went in search of their first aid kit, Dean carefully cut Castiel's collared shirt from around his wings. It was covered in so much blood that, being a white shirt, it wouldn't be salvageable anyway.

A few small cuts trailed along his chest and neck, but it seemed that the majority of the blood all over him had come from his wings.

Sam and Dean each took hold of a wing, slowly feeling its length, trying to detect any fractures. The feathery appendages were broken in several places, but it was fixable. Hopefully. At least, it would be if he were a bird. But angel is close enough, right?

(next Cas is asked to fold his wings)


	2. Chapter 2

When Dean finally left Cas's room, he found Sam sitting at the small table in the kitchenette, laptop open in front of him.

"How is he?" Sam asked as he sat in the rickety chair next to him.

"Like shit. But at least he's out cold," Dean replied sulkily. As much as he wasn't willing to admit it, he was worried about the angel.

Sam continued to type away at his computer. He wasn't going to mention the bags that had appeared under Dean's eyes when they broached the subject of the angel that was unconscious in the next room.

"So," Sam broke the awkward silence," I found a bit of lore on angel wings. It seems pretty consistent with what we already know. But check this out, 'It is said that an angel's wings can only be healed by God. Without this, the angel will simply fade away from existence bit-by-bit, finally descending into the dark pits of Hell to join Lucifer, also a wingless angel.'"

Dean's face darkened at the mention of God, and morphed into one of distress, as he thought of Cas slowly fading and ending up stuck in Hell with his bat-shit crazy older brother.

Sam took the silence to reassure Dean.

"But Dean, that doesn't mean that's the only way. I mean, this isn't exactly a science. We don't really know anything. But, I do have an idea…" he trailed off.

Dean raised an eyebrow in the universally sign of asking him to continue.

"What if we summoned Gabriel? I mean, he-"

"The Hell Sammy! That's a horrible idea! We don't know who did this to him. I mean, for all we know, it could have been Gabriel who…" Dean stopped. He couldn't bring himself to actually verbalize what happened to Cas. If he did, it just made it all the more real. He was still halfway hoping that he would wake up any minute now, and this would all have been a dream.

"Dean, I didn't say it was a good idea, but it is one of the only ones we have. Otherwise, we just have to wait around and see if God is gonna heal Cas or let him die."

Dean ran his through hair and sighed. Nothing was good. None of it would work. If they called Gabriel, it was either going to screw them all or save Cas's life.

It was several minutes filled with pacing on both parts before Dean turned to Sam.

"Let's do it."

"What?"

"Let's call Gabriel."

"Dean, you just said that was a terrible idea. And now you want to try and pull it off?"

"I'm not gonna let Cas rot in there. God never gave a damn about us before, and he sure as hell ain't about to start," Dean semi shouted. He didn't want to wake up Cas, but he had to get through to Sam that this was, in fact, their only option.

"But you said yourself, 'what if it is him'! What-" Sam stopped himself. He knew by the look in his brother's eyes that this was not a fight that he was going to win. In fact, he didn't win many fights over the topic of their angel.

* * *

"Are you sure you want to do this, Dean?"

He held the match in his hand. Everything was set up in front of them. All that was left was to drop it in.

Dean nodded his head in affirmation. He was, at least, as ready as he ever would be.

Flames shot from the basin and a thin smoke arose. In front of them, Gabriel appeared.

His face was placid at first, but quickly changed to anger. He must have picked up on Cas's grace.

"Gabriel, hold on, it's not what you think! We just-" Sam rushed. This was not looking good for either of the Winchesters. But at least they knew, if the look on his face was anything to go by, that Gabriel was not the one that went after Cas.

"Whoa, tricky, hold your horses!" Dean shouted as he was lifted from the ground. Gabriel had both Winchesters pinned to the wall and was inching his way toward Cas's room.

"What have you done to him? How could you? He trusted you!" the angel bellowed.

"Will you wait a minute? We didn't do anything!" Sam struggled to pull away from the wall he was pinned against.

"Why should I believe anything you say when my baby brother is over there dying? In your care!" The room started to chill as the trickster's grace seeped out in his anger.

"Because we wouldn't have called you if we did this. We called because we needed you help! We want to save him just as much as you do. Please!" Sam tried reasoning with the frantic angel.

"That's no excuse! How else-"

"Ga…briel," a voice gasped from the doorway. The room's three occupants looked over to where the new voice came from.

Leaning heavily on the doorway was Cas. His face was flushed, and it was obvious that it was taking all of his energy just to keep himself in that semi-upright state. Behind him, his wings were sprawled haphazardly and dragging on the ground.

"Castiel!" Gabriel rushed to his side. He pulled the weak angel toward the floor and maneuvered him into his lap, resting his head back under his chin.

Dean's face grew worried when it took a long time for the angel to respond.

"It wasn't them. Brother, it wasn't… them," Cas whispered as he lay back against his older brother.

"Sh. Just rest. It'll be fine," Gabriel lulled.

The sight was like a strike to the heart for both hunters. To think that, only moments ago, they had thought that Gabriel was the cause of all of this.

Gabriel continued to hold Castiel, but slowly his grace ebbed away and lowered he hunters back to the floor. It took all of Dean's restraint not to grab Cas from the elder angel's arms.

It was Sam who broke the silence.

"Do you believe us now?"

Gabriel's glare would have sent him ten feet under if it could.

"Tell me what happened. Now." Obviously Cas's words didn't do much to soothe the trickster's wrath.

"He just showed up," Dean started. "He hasn't told us anything. We patched him up as best we could. But it said that only God could heal him. That's why we called you."

"I'm not God. I don't know what you expect me to do," Gabriel snapped.

"We didn't say that you were. We just thought that maybe you knew a way around it," Sam supplied.

"There is no way. He's dying." At this, Gabriel nuzzled his face into the top of Castiel's head.

"There's got to be a way!" burst Dean. The other two conscious occupants of the room looked at him. Sam wasn't surprised by the misery on his brother's face. He knew what Dean felt, even if Dean himself didn't show it.

It did, however, surprise Gabriel. He knew that his little brother loved the human, but not that the human felt anything back. After all of he times that Castiel had nearly died because of those two, he figured that they didn't value the angel as much as he apparently valued them. It seemed that he was very, very wrong.

Gabriel looked down at Castiel. He ran his hand down the broken, feathered wings and sighed.

"There is nothing else," the sadness evident in his voice. "There is nothing that I, you, anyone can do to him. It's up to our Father."

"But he's not there! He never is! When did he ever even help anyone?" Dean bellowed.

"Don't say that," hissed Gabriel. If his arms weren't full of injured angel he would have torn Dean limb from limb for that comment.

"Guys, let's just think about this, okay? What can we do right now? Even if we can't save him, there has to be some way to at least help him through the pain," input Sam.

"There's nothing," said the defeated angel. The words cut through the air like a knife through butter.

Sam sighed again and pulled over a wooden chair from the kitchen. The other hunter paced back and forth near the window, running his hands through his hair angrily and grunting in frustration. When he finally turned back toward Gabriel, there were unshed tears pooling in his eyes.

"Please…"

Gabriel didn't respond. Instead, he picked Castiel up and carried him through the doorway that he had come through.

When Gabriel came back, he didn't say anything. He just pulled up another chair and sat next to Sam, staring at the tv.

Hours went on and everyone sat in silence. Eventually Sam was hungry enough to call for Dean's attention.

"Dean, I'm gonna grab some chow. What do you want? Cheeseburger?"

He was met by silence.

"Dean?" he asked, turning around. But Dean wasn't there. Sam looked over at the angel next to him.

"When did he leave?"

"Do I look like his babysitter?" remarked Gabriel.

Sam didn't respond, and instead went to look out the window. Dean was gone, but the impala was still in its parking spot and the keys were still on the kitchen table.

"Human," whispered Gabriel from behind him.

Sam couldn't stop his eyebrows from crinkling together in annoyance. When he turned he saw Gabriel waving him to go over to where he was.

"What? Did you find him?"

Gabriel shushed him, and pushed open the door to the bedroom. It was dimly lit, but he could make out two figures on the bed. When his eyes finally adjusted to the light, he saw that it was Cas and Dean snuggled up together.

Dean was lying on his back, and Cas's head was nuzzled up under his chin. Their legs were tangled together, and the hunter was snoring lightly and contentedly.

It was, in all honesty, adorable and Sam was both proud of Dean for finally reaching out, and a little nervous of that Gabriel would think.

The angel, to Sam's surprise, just smiled a sad little smile at him. It had been a long time since his little brother was this happy.

The pair simply closed the door and left them alone. As the night dragged on, Sam eventually went and curled up in the bed opposite the couple, leaving Gabriel to watch reruns of Dr. Sexy for the duration of the night.

* * *

The next morning when he went to go check on his brother he was shocked to see the difference in his appearance. Where his wings had been mangled and bandaged, they were new fully feathered and sprawled out gracefully, protectively, over Dean and him.

Gabriel quickly went over and shook Sam awake, shushing his loud groan.

"You need to see this," he whispered, trying his hardest not to wake the still sleeping couple.

"Gabriel, do you have any idea what time it is?" Sam was obviously still in his sleepy haze, and didn't even register the events of the night before in his mind. In response, the tall angel reached out and tugged on his ear, pulling him over to where the other bed was.

Sam realized how pointless it was to fight the angel, and painfully followed. At first, he didn't notice what he was supposed to be looking at. So the two were still curled up together. Big deal. Was it really necessary to was him up at seven to show him that?

Sam raised his eyebrow at the angel, still not understanding what he was supposed to be seeing.

"His wings, you idiot," whispered-yelled the angel.

All the events of the previous night came rushing back to Sam's mind.

Castiel showing up on their doorstep. The blood. Calling Gabriel in for help. The couple curling up. And then he saw it.

"But… how? How did you fix them?"

"I didn't," the angel said under his breath.

Sam's eyes grew even wider than they had been. If Gabriel didn't heal them, then that means…

"God?" broke Sam's bewildered voice. The trickster could only nod in response. He was as shocked as Sam. Countless angels before Castiel had met their untimely end because of broken wings. God had never saved any of the other angels, so why Cas? What was so special about him?

Dean shifted on the bed, and the rustle of the sheets pulled him out of his lull. But the hunter didn't wake, and the angel's questions went unanswered.

* * *

Hey guys! So this was my first Destiel fanfic, and second overall. I have to admit that I gave myself feels more than once when I was writing this... oops... But it was a lot of fun to write, so it was worth it! Please let me know what you think, if you see any mistakes, or have any suggestions for the future! Thanks!


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